New demographics studies suggest that, by 2020, as many as 40 million more Chinese males than females will reach adulthood. The statistic is one side effect of the country’s controversial one-child policy that favoured boys over girls; and will result in millions of young Chinese men unable to find life partners. Already, Vietnam, Mongolia and Myanmar have reported large numbers of women migrating across their borders in search of better lives.

Says Valerie Hudson, a political scientist who holds the prestigious George H. W. Bush Chair at Texas A&M’s Bush School of Government and Public Service and author of Sex and World Peace: “It’s critical for China to do everything in its power to redress the deteriorating sex ratio among China’s birth population.

“The security of women would in time reduce conflict in the international system and literally become the basis of greater security for the nations of the world.” Another study just released by Monash University in Australia says that the one-child policy has had other ramifications too. These children – usually doted on by their parents – are less hopeful and less likely to take risks – characteristics that would make it more difficult for young people to find or create employment in a country where millions compete for the same jobs.

In 2012, a government-led think tank urged leader Xi Jinping to phase out the one-child policy, saying it had cost the country dearly on many levels.